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Turkey lifts YouTube ban

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Turkey lifted its ban on YouTube late on Friday after the video clip insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the country's modern founder, was removed.

The site was banned on Wednesday for showing a video which the court decided insulted "Turkishness" and Ataturk - both serious crimes in Turkey.

But a court in Istanbul lifted the ban and state telco Turk Telecom immediately renewed access to the site. The video had already garnered dozens of vituperative responses.

According to some reports, the video was posted by "an English hacker" who got access to the Greek YouTube user's account details.

An opinion piece in the Turkish Daily News criticised the banning as "trying to solve the problems of the 21st century with the methods of the 20th". It pointed out that the ban created a worldwide news story and resulted in the video collecting far more attention than if it had been ignored. ®